This document discusses using WordPress as a content management system for an organizational intranet. The goals of the project were to improve information architecture, usability, search, and allow more decentralized content control. WordPress Multisite was implemented with custom themes and plugins. Key features included aggregated feeds and events across sites, standardized branding, and an anonymous feedback blog. Lessons learned included the need for table editing, ongoing training, custom CSS classes, and ensuring server performance for a large WordPress Multisite installation.

1. Technology Hotspot & Salon
WordPress Case Study
WPMU as a CMS for Organizational Intranet
Anca Mosoiu
Tech Liminal
268 14th Street, Oakland, CA 94612 | Open 11-7 Monday - Friday | More info: http://www.techliminal.com
Content in this presentation is Copyright (c) 2010 Tech Liminal. CC-Share-Alike. Feel free to use stuff from this presentation, but leave a link to Tech Liminal

2. Introduction
Anca Tech Liminal
• Web Developer • Technology Hotspot & Salon
• Information Architect • Co-Working
• 15 years of experience in • Workshops, Conferences
technology & marketing orgs • Expert, friendly help with web &
• Freelancer, Entrepreneur social media
anca@techliminal.com
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3. Agenda
• The Goals
• The Implementation
• Key Features
• Lessons Learned
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4. Project Goals

5. Project Overview
• Govt. organization with approximately 300 employees
• Intranet:
• Static HTML pages, updated by only 1 person
• Twiki, Jira, eRooms, and proprietary systems for
solving specific problems
• Lots of documents, images, some video
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6. Project Goals
• Improve Information Architecture & Usability
• New Look and Feel that can be used across apps
• Allow individual contributors greater control of their
content outside of the Twiki pages
• Provide a platform for feedback, blogs, and other
dynamic elements
• Improve internal Search Results through improved
content organization
• Migrate existing (internal) WordPress blogs to new
environment
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7. Why WordPress?
• Simple tool with lots customization
capability
• Existing users within the organization
• PHP / WordPress programming
expertise in organization
• Open Source platform
• WPMU allows for more granular
permissions and organization
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8. Implementation

9. The Solution
Aggregate Feeds from other
announcements from tools and areas
all site areas
Aggregate events
postings from all site
areas
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10. The Intranet
Consistent look for all
site areas - This is the
PR Dashboard More feeds - useful for
PR team
Lots of link to internal
content
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11. WordPress Architecture
SVN
(source control)
WPMU LDAP
(authentication)
Customizations People Apps
(Web Service)
App Server
App Server:
WPMU DB Uploads Linux, Apache, PHP
VPS, 1.5 GB RAM
DB Server NFS Mount
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12. WPMU Architecture
• Theme: Thesis 1.7 (started w/ 1.6)
• Ease of customization
• Good features for creating standardized L&F
• Plugins
• WPMU LDAP
• Sitewide Tags
• Breadcrumbs NavXT
• Alkivia SidePosts (Customized)
• FlexiPages
• TinyMCE Advanced
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13. Deployment and Adoption
• Project launched May 20th
• Stakeholders have been adding content, updating their
sites
• Ongoing training is needed to reinforce and drive
adoption
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14. Key Features

15. Site Areas
• Each Site Area = 1 “Blog”
• Specific set of people to update, maintain
• Some have sub-blogs
• Same look and feel, standardized widget placement
• Combined through Navigation Menu
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16. Links - the All-Purpose Tool!
• Many landing
pages = “Link
Farms”
• Links were also
used for Site
Navigation
• Customized Links
widget
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17. This Week’s Events
• Feature is intended to
replace weekly emails
• Aggregate content from
within site areas
• Custom development
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18. “Safety Blog”
• A place for feedback from the community, with
responses from Safety Team
• All employees have been added as “contributors”
• Anonymous feedback through Contact Form 7
• Email notification using
• Peter’s Collaboration Emails
• Subscribe2
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19. Lessons Learned

20. Content and Authoring
• People must be able to create Tables in their editor
• Ongoing Training and support will drive adoption -
Intranet Manager will continue to work w/ stakeholders
as they become familiar with yet another internal app
• WP levels of access & permissions provide a great light-
weight workflow for publishing content
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21. Design
• Custom Classes are very helpful on Widgets
• Thesis approach to CSS took some getting used to
• Thesis import/export of options was VERY useful
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22. Development and Performance
• RSS feeds (and the default widget) were slow and
somewhat problematic
• For WPMU, you really need a whole server
• Sitewide Tags plugin saved a ton of time in terms of
aggregating content
• Setting up new sites takes some time - need to configure
several plugins
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23. And one last one...
• Bureaucratic purchasing departments have a hard time
buying through PayPal - if you want to sell a theme,
provide a mailing address and contact #
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24. Q&A